Superbaby

It's a bird!  It's a plane!  It's SUPERBABY!

This is Wren's latest trick.  Flying.  Or skydiving.  Or something.  She completely arches her back and brings her arms and legs up high in the air.  She does it all the time lately.  I tried it... it's tricky.  This girl must have some killer ab muscles.  I remember I had to practice this exact pose before skydiving.  She's already a pro... maybe she'll jump out of an airplane with Grandma O' some day!  :) 

Flying...

...still going...

Hey, Macy... check me out!

 Tired now.  Flying is hard work.

So cute :)

30!

Chris turned 30 yesterday!  Here's the cake I made... so rich.... so good.  It's a flourless chocolate cake topped with ganache and chocolate whipped cream.  I tweaked this recipe a bit.  I used strongly brewed coffee instead of water, 4 eggs and 2 egg whites rather than 6 whole eggs, and 12 ounces semi-sweet plus 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate.  I think all bittersweet would have been a little much.  Anyway, it turned out pretty dang good, if I do say so myself!  

Wren helping me make Daddy's cake.  

She loved playing with (and trying to eat) the chocolate chip bag.  

My kind of girl! :)

The 30 year old and his cake!

The 30 year old and his baby girl!

Love them both so much!    

Chris is 30! (well, tomorrow....)

30?!  How can that be?  I sometimes joke with Chris that I was present at, and remember, my dad's 30th birthday party... haha, so how can it be that I'm married to a 30 year old?!  Well, I guess because I am 27, after all.... despite that fact that any time anyone asks me how old I am, my brain automatically thinks "23."  I guess you are only as old as you feel, right?  Right?? Right.

So, I have big plans of making a birthday cake today... a flourless chocolate birthday cake.  Yum.  I have made it before... I think for Chris's birthday, actually... and it is soooooo yummy.  Pictures to come later!

Oh, and it has finally cooled off here!  It has been in the upper 90's lately.... entirely much too hot.  Today we woke up to temps in the low 70's!  Oh, the glorious 70's!  As a high!  Not as a nighttime low!  Windows are officially OPEN!

Guess Who's Home?

Lita!

We shipped her off to doggy boot camp for 2 weeks.  I'm actually quite impressed with the results!  She listens sooooo much better than before.  I think Wren missed her doggy... she just stares at her.  Even if Lita is doing nothing but laying there.  Too funny.  

 Watching Lita

 Still watching....

Finally noticed me taking pictures.... 

Lots to do around here today.  Laundry, clean the house, wash Wren's 6-9 month clothes (really?? already?!), decorate for FALL!  Woohoo.... it's still so dang hot here, but I'm dreaming of cool weather, changing leaves, spiced candles, and pumpkin everything!

Back to Work

Well, back to work today.  It's always so hard going back after I have had a lot of days off.  It's not that I don't like my job, I actually really love it, it's just hard to leave Wren after spending so many days in a row with her.  Once we get back into the swing of things it's fine....

Chris and Wren went to the farmer's market downtown today while I was working.  They brought back lots of fun stuff...  peaches, melon, carrot cake, corn, a huge lemon bar... all sorts of yummy stuff! I met them over at Jim and Kathleen's for pizza after I was done with work.  Matt, Josie, and Macy were there, too!  It's always so fun getting the girls together.  Macy is one month and one day older than Wren, but what a difference those few weeks make!  Miss Macy has 2 teeth already!  And she's crawling!  It's entertaining watching Wren and Macy interact.  They just look at each other... it's so funny.  I can't wait until they are older and can run around together!

Well, short post tonight... bed time.  I have some pics on the camera I could post, but honestly I'm too lazy to go to the living room to get the camera.  Ha.  Here's one from my phone from a while ago.  Makes me laugh cause her momma and daddy like "canny" a lot....and if she's anything like us, she probably will, too.....

Braunschweiger*, anyone?

Chris came home from work this morning with a brown paper bag full of goodies.  My first thought was, "Booze?  At 10:30 in the morning?  A little early, but I'm game... Wren's still napping.   I could have a quick morning mixed drink before she needs to eat again.... Do we have any orange juice?  Hmmm, or Coke, maybe?"....  While I was trying to think about what kind of mixers we have in the house, Chris started unpacking the bag, and instead of pulling out glass bottles of alcohol, he pulled out beautifully wrapped packages of meat!  German meat!  Bacon!  Sausage!  Peppered Beef!  Schweinebauch!  Westfalian Ham!  We don't eat much meat around here, as you can see by my reaction to a bag full of meat.  Not that we don't like meat, we actually love it, but it's so hard to find meat from animals that have been humanely raised and not chock full of steroids and growth hormones.  Meat is like a treat around our house, and I kind of like it that way, actually.... we probably only make meals with meat once a week, and it's usually beef from the grass-fed cow we have in our deep freezer in the garage.  So this goodie bag was a real treat! I love the place it comes from...Claus' German Sausage and Meat (it's close to our house, too).  We get all of our "wursts" from there when we have cook-outs... bratwurst, knackwurst, bockwurst, any kind of wurst you can think of!  The guys that run the show there are German all the way.  It's neat to hear them speak with their accents, makes me think of my roommate in college, McKenna.  Her boyfriend is from Germany and he would crack me up by doing nothing but being German... he would say things like "puppy-cat" when referring to kittens... oh, and I loved the "short pants" that he wore.  Ah, Europeans and their funny fashion!  Anyway, back to the meat.  Chris and I just ate 3 sandwiches on rye bread (Claus makes bread, too... no preservatives, made fresh!) between the two of us.  Yum.  Looking forward to bacon and eggs this weekend!

*Despite the title of this post, we did NOT get an braunschweiger.  Makes me think of my mom being pregnant with one of the little kids... can't remember which one.  But I remember her eating it right out of the package.  It reminded me of wet cat food.  And it smelled bad.  Really.  Bad.  Some people seem to really like it, though.  Maybe I should try it someday..... it just might be delicious!

So, we have a sicky chicky here.  Pretty sure she has what I had this last weekend.  She's been sleeping all morning, so here are some pics from yesterday.  Not feeling so good, so nap time snuggling happened in Momma's bed....

 She loves sleeping with things on her face.  

I usually let her fall asleep that way, then I pull the blanket down.

Nothing better than a B&B (binky and blanky) in Momma's bed!

Downtown!

We had a great day yesterday!  The weather cooled off a bit, so we were able to get downtown and walk around during the afternoon.  We started off with brunch at Mesh on Mass Ave.  Wren does so well when we go out!  I was a little apprehensive because last time we went to Mesh, she pooped everywhere.  Ah, what a fun time that was.... I went to change her, and of course there wasn't a changing table in the bathroom... so I had to change her on a blanket on the bathroom floor.  Icky.  Mesh is one of those places where the lighting is very dim, so I couldn't see a darn thing.... Wren was hollerin' at me the whole time I was changing her, squirming all around on the floor.  So I was trying to change her, keep her from actually touching the floor with her hands (or her tongue), all the while trying to keep the poop from getting all over her and me.  Sometimes I feel like I just don't have enough arms.... anyway, I finally got her changed, dressed, and all packed up when I realized she didn't just have a blowout, she had a massive blowout.  All over her onesie and cute skirt she was wearing.  I didn't notice this the first time around because of the super dark lighting, remember?  I guess it's nice mood lighting or whatever, but less than ideal for changing poopy diapers.  Sooooooo, I had to lay everything out again on the floor.  Ick ick ick.  By this point Wren was totally over being changed and she was maaaa-aaaad.  Oh yeah, did I mention that the bathroom was a single stall room???  I was just praying that there wasn't someone on the other side waiting to get in... because by this point we had been in there a solid 15 minutes.  Yikes. Luckily, no one was waiting, I had an extra outfit for Wren, and I managed to keep poop and bathroom nastiness off of both of us the whole time.  Yay!  It still was not an experience I would like to repeat.  Ever.  This time around at Mesh, however, we had no poop problems!  Wren just sat and played while Chris and I enjoyed our lovely meal... and momma even had a mimosa!  Woohoo!  After brunch we walked down Mass Ave, stopped in a bunch of the cute shops, and eventually made our way down to the circle to get a hot fudge sundae at the South Bend Chocolate Company.  Yum.  It was a great day with my family!  Can't wait for fall weather so we can get out more.  I meant to get pictures yesterday, but I totally forgot.... so here a few pics of Wren enjoying the latest package from Grandpa B and Grandma Barb....

Books, books, books!

Hey Wren, what's your favorite new book?

 Apparently she likes "Kiki"!

Such a happy girl!
Thanks Grandpa and Grandma B!